in Asian American service organizations. She began to get involved in the early formations of San Jose Taiko in 1973 through Roy Hirabayashi whom she met in 1969 during her years at CSU Hayward. They would eventually get married and become the leaders of San Jose Taiko, Roy as the managing director and PJ as the artistic director. Taiko involvement PJ had some exposure to taiko through Obon festivals growing up. However, she was finally struck by it during a performance by San Francisco Taiko Dojo through a cultural program featured through the Issei project she was involved with. In this performance she saw two women performing on equal level with the men and, "remembered thinking, that's fantastic to see women play such a powerful activity, [yet] still be connected to Japanese culture." After this, PJ had an interest to connect to her Japanese heritage through the art of taiko. When she returned to San Jose State in 1973 she was able to get involved with taiko because Roy Hirabayashi had just started San Jose Taiko. Even though PJ had never had any prior instruction of taiko before, under training from groups such as Ondekoza, Kodo, Warabi-za, and Oedo Sukeroku, PJ went on to become a leading taiko artist and teacher. The year 1987 was when San Jose Taiko was first invited to tour Japan through the group Ondekoza. Even though San Jose had at times been called illegitimate because of their break from traditional Japanese taiko and an embracing of a more fused sound combining Japanese rhythms with American and World influences, they were widely received by Japanese audiences. This inspired San Jose to become a more serious professional taiko group. In 1991, San Jose Taiko went on their first touring series across the United States to present the unique style of San Jose Taiko to parts of America that may not have had any exposure to the art form previously. PJ is a part of the touring group that tours both the US and internationally, presenting taiko to over 100,000 people per year. Until July 2011 PJ was the artistic director of San Jose Taiko where she oversaw rehearsals, developed the training program and curriculum of San Jose Taiko, developed costumes, composed some of the repertoire, and facilitated the artistic development of the group. In addition to this, she also directed the performing company's workshops, master classes, and